Ortley Beach First Aid Building Slated for Demolition

The Ortley Beach First Aid Squad building will come crumbling down sometime in November after being used as a polling place Election Day.

After reverting to township ownership in June, the Ortley Beach First Aid Squad building is slated for demolition since discovering major flaws in the structure, officials said.

Toms River became the owner of the volunteer first aid squad after membership and thus responses to first aid calls dipped, said Township Administrator Paul Shives.

As it was now township property, the building had to meet stricter codes for its structure, utilities and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, Shives said.

The building failed, and after a June inspection by township staff and experts, a list of needed repairs would have totaled more than $0.5 million, Shives said.

"We send our staff and experts through the building, and we found a number of problems," Shives said. "The restrooms aren't ADA compliant, the parking doesn’t comply. There are problems with electrical wiring, a problem relative to mold, the roof needs replacing...I could go on and on."

The repairs and compliance issues on a more than 40 year-old building totalled more than $0.5 million, which led the township to opt for demolition and then rebuilding something new, Shives said.

"It doesn’t really, cost effectively, make any sense to repair it," Shives said. Instead the township will craft plans for a new building, possibly smaller, so it has the required ADA parking.

How much would the new building cost?

"It depends on the construction," Shives said. "If I had to guess, in the million dollar range, probably in exceess of that."

The township council agreed last night to advertise for bids for the demolition work. Shives said the idea is to demolish the building in November.

The site will be used as a polling place for Election Day. The township will put temporary bathrooms to get the site up for ADA compliance that day, Shives said.

The idea is to schedule demolition shortly after Election Day, Shives said.

The first aid squad operated out of the building for 40 years and Shives said Toms River community service officers now assist with first aid calls.